Chapter 1

Lily's POV

"Three years down four to go" Lily thought to herself as she calmly walked through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. Honestly she was glad to be back, her sister Petunia was becoming increasingly hostile and she wasn't really comfortable in the muggle world anymore. It seemed so ... PLAIN! She missed Hogwarts and doing magic and seeing her friends and the Marauders everyday. Okay she could do without little Peter Pettigew but Remus, Sirius and James were hilarious. Not only were they the best looking boys of their year but their pranks were legendary, as was their unfailing good humor when they were caught, not that it was very often.

Lily continued to reminisce until a shriek pierced the air and her three best friends Kiara, Jaden, and Nairi came hurtling towards her. Laughing she tried to embrace all three of them at the same time and somehow they all ended up in a big pile on the floor. All of them laughing and talking at the same time.

Just then an amused voice said, "Well Jamesie, Remy, Pete it's our lucky day. Four beautiful girls fall on the floor right at our feet, which one do ya want? I'll take two" Glancing up Lily saw the Marauders; Sirius had his usual school-boyish grin that somehow managed to look charming and childish at the same time. She grinned as cries of "hi James" hi Sirius" "hi Remus" came from the girls still in a tangled mess around her.

The boys laughed and helped the four girls to their feet as the whistle sounded and all of them grabbed their trunks and hurried onto the train that would take them home.

James's POV

Once onboard the Hogwarts' Express the eight of them squished into an empty compartment, Jaden reached into her bag and they all settled down to a nice "quiet" game of Exploding Snap. After several rounds James sat back and looked at the other occupants.

His best friend Sirius Black looked exactly the same as last year, or maybe because they had spent practically the whole summer together he just didn't see any changes. Remus Lupin was the one who kept him and Sirius from going completely mad sometimes, Remus was quiet and easy-going and a werewolf. Not that it made any difference, as a matter of fact it was Remus's lycanthropy was what caused the rest of them to attempt to become Animagi. So far they hadn't completely figured it out yet but James was confident that by 5th year they could do it. In the corner sat Peter Pettigew, short, kinda dumpy, Peter was a year behind the rest of them. Part of James wondered how he had become a Marauder but he dismissed the thought. The fact was Peter was one of them and it didn't matter how he got there.

That left the girls. Jaden Mandell was a petite brunette, very pretty and though she was somewhat serious James knew that she could play a prank as well as the rest of them. And he knew all too well how her seriousness could help her out when there were pranks to be pulled. Once last year in an end of term fit of yayness she managed to sneak into the Slytherin common room and set off a flurry of Dungbombs and Filibuster Fireworks. He remembered because the Slytherins thought that the Marauders were the ones behind it and they all got two weeks detention. No that he blamed her much, one of the first rules of prank pulling was "Don't Get Caught" and she hadn't. You had to hand it to the girl, she was good at what she did.

Sitting next to Lupin was Kiara Raye, she was tall and blond, also very pretty. Kiara was probably the most outgoing of the four girls, funny and smart Kiara had somehow managed to fool the teachers into thinking that she was shy and quiet. Huh, quiet my arse, James thought. Just last April she woke up the entire Gryffindor tower screaming that she had seen a rat and shooting sparks at it singeing the carpet. His ears still range sometimes, though it was a good asset at Quidditch matches, you could always count on Kiara to be up there cheering the team on.

Sitting next to Sirius was Nairi Madden, who was crazy. James didn't think that people that small should have that much energy. The top of her head barely reached Sirius's shoulder yet James knew that, when provoked Nairi could have him on the floor while she beat him mercilessly. She would impatiently push her long black hair out of her face while her brown eyes flashed dangerously waiting for something or someone to send her off the deep end.

With that the 8th and final occupant of the compartment. Lily Evans, probably most people would say that her most striking feature were her startlingly green eyes. But then the rest would say it was her long red hair. James wasn't sure which it was but he did know that the combination of the two made her VERY pretty. And he was deathly afraid of her. He knew perfectly well that she had plenty of guys after her, well all four girls did but Lily scared him. He was always afraid of not being able to talk to her for fear of, well, not being able to talk. Of standing in front of her with his mouth hanging open and nothing coming out. So he tried not to talk to her alone (or with Peter for that matter). When he was with one of his friends or she with hers he could talk because they weren't alone so he didn't have to worry about those awkward silences. Except Peter never talked so that didn't really work with him.